Technique H75:Ensuring that Web pages are well-formed

Applicability

Any XML-based markup languages.

This technique relates to 4.1.1: Parsing (Sufficient when used with Ensuring that Web pages can be parsed by using one of the following techniques:).

Description

The objective of this technique is to avoid key errors that are known to cause problems for assistive technologies when they are trying to parse contents. Well-formedness is checked by parsing the document with a conforming XML parser and checking if the validation report mentions well-formedness errors. Every conforming XML parser is required to check well-formedness and stop normal processing when a well-formedness error is found (a conforming XML parser does not need to support validation).

Examples

Example 1

XML files include a document type declaration, a xsi:schemaLocation attribute or other type of reference to a schema. The developer can use off-line or online validators, an XML editor or an IDE with XML support (see Resources below) to check well-formedness.

Example 2

When XML files do not include a document type declaration, a xsi:schemaLocation attribute or a processing instruction referencing a schema even though there is a schema for them, the relevant schema is specified by a command line instruction, a user dialog or a configuration file, and the XML files are checked against the schema.

Example 3

When XML files do not include a document type declaration, a xsi:schemaLocation attribute or a processing instruction referencing a schema even though there is a schema for them, the namespace is dereferenced to retrieve a schema document or resource directory (Resource Directory Description Language: RDDL), and the XML files are checked against the schema.

Example 4

When a Website generates XML dynamically instead of serving only static documents, a developer can use XMLUnit, XML Test Suite or a similar framework to test the generated XML code.

Other sources

No endorsement implied.

Well-Formed XML Documents in Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Third Edition), W3C Recommendation 04 February 2004.
Well-Formed XML Documents in Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1, W3C Recommendation 04 February 2004.
4.3.2 Well-Formed Parsed Entities in Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1, W3C Recommendation 04 February 2004.

For other resources, see Validating Web pages.

Tests

Procedure

Load each file into a validating XML parser.
Check that there are no well-formedness errors.

Expected Results

Step 2 is true.